life changing moments or years

[Trinity]

What life changing moments or years did you have in your life?

I had a lot in mine, but the biggest one had to be the summer of 76, everything changed for me then, absolutely everything, just out of high school, blonde bombshell with me, started the theater and wound up doing a hundred shows back to back before I imploded at twenty seven. 

But there are a whole lot of them, and it always revolved around people.

Transitioning I guess was another big one, but it really wasn't as big as some of the other ones that went down.

But it was always the people I loved  that changed things the most for me.  Whether it was romantic love, or a group of people, like the theater folk and in particular the trans theater people, but the summer of seventy six, everything changed for me, and I think it was in a good way, it was the beginning of everything and the end of a lot of pain as well.

Life changing stuff.  Theater for me, of course, music, wrestling, that first love, pot, booze, and then there was that first time as sh'e, basically, though too chicken to really live that out.

Had I not wound up with that first love, I am pretty sure I would have transitioned very early, and I am not sure what would have happened after that, the seventies were very dangerous as a time to be trans.

I used to go out with two layers of clothes, boy on the surface girl on the inside, and get totally smashed at the discos on the big three, grass booze and amyl, it was a wild time and I was very lucky to have lived through it without getting aids or worst, it was one wild ride for me.

Anyone want to share?  Kiinda personal stuff to talk about but why not.

[Ativan Prescribed]

First time falling from a cliff too high and living through it, high school years.
First motorcycle and then owning a Harley, riding at night, all night long because hot summer nights.
Riding in a small stunt stress plane up the river valley on a ride with a crazy stunt pilot, wingtips at the thickest part of the trees along the sides.
Same plane and pilot and flying under a railroad bridge over the river, then doing a barrel roll right after.
Three day canoe trips on the upper St Croix river, mostly state park area and forest.
Learning to kayak and going from a lake to whitewater on the Kettle River in the state here.
Dirt biking on the frozen river and discovering that indeed you can slide sideways forever, then going on the snowmobile trails with the dirt bikes and trying not to hit the trees.
Snow skiing in Colorado getting up early and getting the fresh powder and skiing the trees, again trying not to hit the trees, but bouncing off them wasn't all that bad, but the long runs that for some reason they called expert there, just easy to ski deep snow for a kid from MN.
First concert at Red Rock Amphitheater in CO, getting there early and listening to some guy with a violin alone on the stage and being able to hear every note like he was ten feet away but sitting in the nosebleed section.
Moving to CO for a time, little Mt town with a lake and finding out that the neighbor was the drummer for the band Spirit, had the albums from them, I got a Line On you was just one of their hits, and then running into James Taylor at the grocery store in town.
Getting drunk on the balcony in a local bar and talking to the dude next to me only to discover he was one of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members, great band that night playing first acoustic and then plugged in.
Tubing the rapids on the little river that ran through town, and getting chewed out by park rangers for doing it, killer river they said, went again the next day.
Climbed several Mts in CO that summer, sitting on the top of the world, climbed Mt Evans first, the tallest and learned that I am pretty good at free climbing from doing a lot of it in high school on the river bluffs.
Living in central america for a couple years doing dastardly things and having a trans girlfriend.
Freefall skydiving in central america, in Honduras to be exact, did one from 20,000 ft, oxygen masks until time to bail, just falling forever it seemed, doing low openings and getting chewed out for going too low.
Riding around in a small but fast and maneuverable helicopter with one crazy pilot who wasn't afraid to die I guess, but then neither was I because it was just too much fun.
Going to school and getting a couple degrees and finding out that I am pretty smart after all, got my dream job and did well enough that the corporation declared twice that advanced the tech by a quantum leap with is an oxymoron if there ever was one.
Having my work go to the DOD and realizing that it is going to kill literally thousands of people and it did, but in the end saved far more people because that quantum leap in tech there, learned to program a computer to get the first leap done.
Went on the road and ran the sound for bar bands on the circuit, traveled all over the country and drank a lot, got laid a lot, smoked a lot of pot....
Got a job in high end sales and decided that going to CA would be fun and went there to live for a few months, dangled off the side of a cliff a couple hundred feet above the waves crashing on the rocks below to retrieve a motorcycle a friend had managed to do a west on Hwy 1 with, Bixby Bridge.
Lived and worked in silicon valley before it was called that, Mountain View.
Came back to MN and high end sales again and just partied a lot for years, got into horses and learned a lot from them about what really matters, lost my mind and went in and out of psyche units for a while and then got brain toasted, and then got online and discovered others who were NB as well.

[Ativan Prescribed]

Forgot to mention the summer of teepee living and being a silversmith as well as a black powder shooter and made money on side bets throwing a tomahawk.
Putting that on my resume got me to the top of the list and then hired for that job with the leaps in it, they were more interested in what that adventure was like than my degrees.
Impressed them that I would just chuck it all one day and go do that, but adventures are like that, you just gotta say WTF sometimes and go.
Its that leap of faith that you will land on your feet or at least something soft and just do the things that seem like maybe not the best idea, but at the same time a lot of fun and knowing you can trust your instincts to survive.
WTF is not a something, its more a way of life.